I’m probably going to freak a few parents out, but I’d be willing to bet I’m not the only parent who hasn’t washed her kid’s car seat cover in three years of owning it. I would have if it seemed necessary, but it didn’t.

But as you might recall, we’ve been playing car seat shuffle following a car accident in November. And having only one car has given me a chance to wash the car seat covers without taking any seats out of commission.

What a surprise! Even though the surface wasn’t noticeably dirty, I found lots of crumbs under the cover. And under the styrofoam. Thank goodness I’d bought a Dustbuster a few months ago – it did a pretty good job getting all of those crumbs and sand off. (That reminds me, I owe you a proper review of the Dustbuster.)

Washing the covers was pleasantly easy. So far I’ve washed two Britax Roundabout covers and one Marathon cover. The directions say hand wash and line dry, but I ignored the first part and put them in my (relatively new) washer on the “hand wash” setting, then hung them to dry, and it worked fine.

I have only washed the cover to my Britax Boulevard once. It was right after a nasty bout with a stomach bug, so I absolutely HAD to clean it. It was a pain to get the cover on and off…I thought I would have to buy a new carseat there for a few minutes!

The instructions on this one said that it should be dry cleaned, but I tossed it in my front load washer on the hand wash cycle without any problems.

I do dustbust it occasionally, and I vacuum it out every time I wash the car. It’s still crummy each time though!

I’ve washed every car seat cover I’ve ever had (11 years worth of car seat use by 3 kids) and they’ve all washed well. Wash in the washer and line dry. Works like a charm. My oldest used to get car sick a LOT and so my first car seat cover got washed almost weekly. ugh!